Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Gotcha, a show of recent work by artist Richard Rawlins, will run at Alice Yard for two nights, Thursday 23 and Friday 24 June, 2011, from 7.00 pm. The second night of the show will include a performance by dancer/choreographer Dave Williams.

Rawlins writes:

“Gotcha can be considered a three-part examination of us. It continues my look at the shape of our Trinidad ‘politrix’ in the age of KAMALOT — the state of the Trinidad and Tobago under Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar — from a perspective that observes the festering anger of a new class of dissenters. We like to think that ‘tyre burning’ is relegated to one class of people in society, but the thing that fuels tyre burning as a tool of dissent is in all of us. It’s just bubbling under the surface.

“The show consists of a series of thirty paintings, some of which are of characters with over exaggerated lips and eyes representing our ‘watching and silent waiting and bubbling’ for something to happen. There is also an examination through a screenprint collaboration with artist Suzanne Nunez as well as buttons of a ubiquitous and lasting element of our Trinidad and Tobago culture, our picong, the ‘Megee’: the ‘five fingered fart’, the ‘fowl bottom’, that fools you again and again (coincidentally it ties in with other work in the show, symbolising our five-party coalition government, the People’s Partnership). Rounding it all up is a monograph featuring an introduction by artist/designer Adele Todd, a Megee musing by writer Tracy Hutchings, an essay on art and politics by Andre Bagoo and a number of new and ongoing design explorations of our age of KAMALOT and our unresolved NAPA ‘tabanca’.”

.Alice Yard is the backyard space of the house at 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain.

This was once the house of Sean Leonard’s great-grandmother. Four generations of children played and imagined in this yard, and now we continue this tradition. Alice Yard is a space for creative experiment, collaboration, and improvisation.

Alice Yard is administered and curated by architect Sean Leonard, artist Christopher Cozier, and writer and editor Nicholas Laughlin, with the help of a growing network of creative collaborators. Read more about us here. Alice Yard is a non-profit organisation incorporated under the laws of Trinidad and Tobago.

Since 2008, Alice Yard has run a residency programme hosting artists, curators, and other creative practitioners. Find out more here.